Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
California Trip Report, Part 2:
Wednesday: The hotel delivered a largish breakfast to our room - pastries, orange juice, yogurt, and fruit. I ate everything but the fruit, DH only ate the pastries. We went out to look at the geyser in Calistoga, but I didn't want to pay to get in. It happened to be going off at just that moment, so we could see it a bit over the fence. Then drove out the Silverado Trail, and back down to the valley for a tasting at Cardinale. We tasted the Cardinale 1998 and 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon, and the Lokoya selections from each of the 3 mountain vineyards. As I recall, we liked the 1998 Cardinale (the one that was supposed to be less good than the other) and one or two of the Lokoya mountain vineyards. But both these labels are way out of our price range, so it didn't really matter. However, we did get a great recommendation for lunch from them - Nest on Rt. 29 at Oakville Grade. DH had a smoked chicken and roasted veggie sandwich, and I had corned beef and pastrami. We shared a bag of Rt. 11 potato chips, which we were astonished and happy to find there. Then spent some time in St. Helena walking up and down Main St. and looking in shop windows. I bought an olive oil dipping dish at Olivier - very cool, but priced over the retail list price. This was something we were to learn after we returned home - it's a bad idea to buy anything in Napa Valley that you can get elsewhere. We made a great food find in St. Helena though - the Model Bakery. We stopped in for tea, and discovered that they had a really good brand of tea - Mighty Leaf. We had a reservation that evening for dinner at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, and were very happy with the meal there. We shared an appetizer - the Backstreet flatbread with local cheeses etc. This was like a very, very thin pizza with thinly scattered toppings. Very good and just the right size appetizer for the large main courses to come. DH had chipotle-rubbed quail on potato-filled enchiladas, and I had a half chicken - boned and served in a spicy sauce. The wine was Miner Family Zinfandel, which we liked. And now I have waited too long to write this, and can't remember what the dessert was. Maybe DH remembers.....
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